“It’s no coincidence that ‘Thou shalt not lie’ is one of the Ten Commandments.”

Suppose you were writing about how to succeed in business by being nice and wanted to back up your ideas by giving examples of some famously “nice” celebrities. Would the first name that came to mind here be “Donald Trump”? No? You’ll find other bizarre examples like this one The Power of Nice (Doubleday), a dish of treacle from the advertising executives who created the Aflac duck. Although this is supposed to be a business book, you’ll also find breathless platitudes that wander far from the office like “call your grandmother, for goodness’ sake – she’s dying to hear from you!”

Writing sample:
Kaplan Thaler and Koval report: “It’s no coincidence that ‘Thou shalt not lie’ is one of the Ten Commandments.” So did God send them a text message explaining this? Or a fax? And are we to assume that other things in the Ten Commandments are a “coincidence”?